Neglect in the numbers: leaving no voice behind in disease elimination

Summary

This is a letter to the editor of the Lancet Global Health highlighting the importance of people-centred NTD research.

Written by researchers from Sightsavers and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), the letter says that people living with chronic morbidity or disability as a result of lymphatic filariasis (LF) are at risk of being made invisible by the current focus on research which counts the numbers of people who currently have the disease as the sole focus of elimination.

Instead, the researchers call for an equal focus on what people living with LF need in terms of services and social protection. Many of them will have experienced stigma, isolation and economic hardship, and will have long-term health needs which will still need care once the disease has been eliminated through mass drug administration.